Editing Sergei Kirov (section)

== Revolutionary ==
Kirov was a participant in the [[1905 Russian Revolution]] and was arrested, joining with the [[Bolsheviks]] soon after being released from prison. In 1906, he was arrested once again, but this time jailed for over three years, charged with printing illegal literature. Soon after his release, Kirov again took part in revolutionary activity, once again being arrested for printing illegal literature. After a year in custody, Kirov moved to the [[Caucasus]], where he stayed until the [[Abdication of Nicholas II|abdication of Tsar Nicholas II]] after the [[February Revolution]] in March 1917. By this time, Kirov had shortened his last name from Kostrikov to Kirov, a practice common among Russian revolutionaries of the time. Kirov began using the [[pen name]] Kir, first publishing under the [[pseudonym]] Kirov on 26 April 1912. One account states that he chose the name Kir, the Russian version of [[Cyrus]] (from the [[Greek language|Greek]] Kūros), after a [[Christian martyr]] in third-century [[Egypt]] from an [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] calendar of saints' days, and [[Russifying]] it by adding an ''-ov'' [[suffix]]. A second story is that Kirov based it on the name of the Persian king [[Cyrus the Great]].<ref>[[#Lenoe|Lenoe]], p. 186</ref>

Kirov became commander of the Bolshevik military administration in [[Astrakhan]] and fought for the [[Red Army]] in the [[Russian Civil War]] until 1920. [[Simon Sebag Montefiore]] writes: "During the Civil War, he was one of the swashbuckling [[Political commissar#In the Soviet Union|commissar]]s in the North Caucasus beside [[Sergo Ordzhonikidze|Ordzhonikidze]] and [[Anastas Mikoyan|Mikoyan]]. In Astrakhan he enforced Bolshevik power in March 1919 with liberal bloodletting; more than 4,000 were killed. When a bourgeois was caught hiding his own furniture, Kirov ordered him shot."<ref>Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2005) ''Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar''. Random House. p. 112. {{ISBN|1-4000-7678-1}}</ref>